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I think this thread is gonna turn into another FrontPage vs Dreamweaver discussion, but here's what I think...
Frontpage gives a better first impression, but after I used it for a couple of weeks, I grew to dislike it.
Dreamweaver can look complex to begin with, but I think its better than Frontpage.
However I don't like either of the two enough to use them - I use Visual InterDev for my ASP sites and EditPlus for non-ASP sites.
There are other alternatives to DW and FP, ie HotMETAL, among others. I am sure there are people who can give opinions on those too.

Oh NO its going to be another Dreaweaver vs Frontpager post. How many replies did the last one get? I'm sure we will be recieving replies from freesources and nitegold as they seem to be always talking about it in the chat room .

Both the editors have good and bad points but IMHO Dreamweaver just takes it. I could sit here all day writting out a list of points in favour of each product but I have more important work to do. It is still a well know fact though that WYSIWYG editors produce messy code so nothing beats editing pages by hand even if you create the basic layout in a WYSIWYG editot (That's what I do anyway). I don't think you should like an editor because it isn't made by a certain company, but you should liek it for the features it has.

Dreamweaver. I don't think anything comes close. I started with Netscape Composer, too, but then used FP for a while, because I needed to know it for work anyway and all the while was learning HTML, too. But Dreamweaver is just a whole other experience. I'm just now starting to use it for site management as well as design. I didn't want anything to do with that after using FP, but found DW's site management tools to be much nicer to work with. Dreamweaver is like having an expert around who'll help you do what you want, the way you want to do it, rather than take decisions out of your hands.

I am new to Sitepoint but in my 2 weeks here It is interesting how the Dreamweaver vs FP debate gets dragged out.

My opinion? The best editor that you can use is the one that you have taken the time to learn COMPLETELY. In the end folks.... the one with the best website wins!!! not the one with the best editor (although a good editor will make it easier to win) hmmm catch 22 there.

Dreamweaver is my personal fav. I am not gonna say bad things about other editors here, but dreamweaver is by far my favorite. It is not completely faultless it still has a bit of a way to go yet. It seems to insert unneeded font tags and it does not manage tables that well. Css cold also be better. I look forward to Dreamweaver 4 this fall . hopefully if it is in the works anyone know if it is ?

Originally posted by mjames86 This is interesting... is there anyone who uses just Notepad?

I personally won't allow Notepad on my machines. I know its only 36 KB but I find it a complete and total waste of resources. I use Ultra-Edit and Textpad as replacements. Though they are larger (both are about 2 megs installed), they actually have a feature set and allow you to work in their environment without limitations such as maximum file sizes, no expandability and other problems Notepad suffers. The fact that Notepad hasn't been changed since the Windows 3.1 days also bothers me. At least they could have optimized it for 32-bit code instead of just recompiling it.

Actually I am just looking at some text editors i have come across a nice looking one called phped have not tried it but its at http://www.soysal.com/PHPEd meant to be good for all those php programs out there. I also need a program to store code snippets any one know i nice deicated program designed to do this ?

Originally posted by mjames86 This is interesting... is there anyone who uses just Notepad?

Hi,

I really can't understand why people would want to use notepad for anything let alone web page designing. I do a lot of code editing and I couldn't live without a programme that colour coded my code. My persoanal favourites are First Page 2000 and HotDog Pro 5.5. For any other text editing I use textpad and I can't remember the last time i used notepad even though it is installed on my machine. I can remember when I first used windows and whenever I tiied to open to large text document "This file is to large for Notepad to open would you like to open it in WordPad instead" what is the point?

The best editor out there (wysiwyg or otherwise) is the one that best serves your needs.

Personally, I use an older version of Homesite (3.0) because it suits my needs. If my needs change and Homesite can't keep up, then I'll change editors.

Only you can make that decision. Rather than ask a blanket question like "What's the best wysiwyg editor" you might get better answers by asking "What's the best wysiwyg editor for doing x, y, and z?"

X, y, and z should be things (there can be as many as you need, not limited to 3) that you feel are important to you successfully accomplishing your goals. Define your needs.

Then you find those programs that meet your goals and evaluate them. Finally, you'll pick the one that seems to work most closely to the way you want to work. Research the alternatives.

While the input of others is very valuable in the decision process, you have to remember that each comment is flavored by the goals, preferences, and prejudices of the poster. Refine the data by seeking outside opinion.

Once you have completed these steps, then you'll know which program(s) will work best for you. Make decision and procure the product.

I know some people who do some awesome sites in Notepad and other simple text editors. I kept at it til I could do a site that way, but finally decided it wasn't worth the eyestrain. Also, I just am not precise enough to remember to close all my tags and generally do everything perfectly, so at the very least I need a text editor that'll take care of that. I liked Homesite and two free ones: EZpad and 1st Page 2000 a lot, but ended up with Dreamweaver, because it'll even find my mistakes. I like to try things, though, and have tried a number of WYSIWYG editors. The problem with a lot of them, besided that they produce bad, or at least bloated code, is that it's really not easy to work with the HTML directly. So, to me, FP2000 and Dreamweaver are one thing and most of the others are really something else.

I personally use a variety of editors in order to get what I want. DreamWeaver sits on top of my pile, purely for the ease of use and the incredible power and leverage it gives to advanced web design specialists. I next use either Homesite 4 or EditPlus for pure HTML and JScript optimisation (and reduce some of the bulky DW code).

FP2000 does have a place - there are quite a few professional sites there which were created with FP2000 and look very decent. One site that comes to mind is http://www.3d3.com